Russian stocks close mixed amid oil price fall, weak ruble

MOSCOW, Feb 4 (PRIME) -- Russian stocks closed mixed on Wednesday amid the oil price dropping again after a 20% hike over the last three days, weakening ruble, and lack of corporate news, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.10% to 1,656.02 and the RTS fell 2.04% to 770.63.

“The stock market’s dynamics was influenced by the Brent oil price, which resumed reduction, as well as by depreciation of the Russian ruble, which is putting pressure on the RTS index,” Raiffeisen Capital analyst Sofiya Kirsanova said.

“The oil rally on the stock market is starting to run out despite that hydrocarbon quotations are not correcting much yet,” Alfa-Forex analyst Andrei Dirgin said.

The Brent price fell 3.99% to U.S. $55.69 per barrel as of 6:33 p.m. Moscow time, as the U.S. energy ministry reported about a more-than-forecasted growth of commercial oil reserves.

The effect from the U.S. oil refineries’ strikes on the Brent price is shredding away, but market players hope the reduction is a short-term trend only, analysts said.

“The Russian market shows slow pace of yesterday’s growth, as market participants prefer to take profit and are waiting for more distinct signs of stable growth of oil quotations,” InstaForex analyst Anton Fomin said.

Securities, which traded below market previously, are becoming the market’s top leaders, as investors are striving to take profit, Kirsanova from Raiffeisen Capital said, adding that there we no major corporate news on Wednesday.

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Wednesday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-1.55	61.04	5.141
Gazprom	+1.60	142.60	4.180
Lukoil	+2.05	2910.00	3.634
Rosneft	+0.27	239.00	1.810
Norilsk Nickel	-2.18	10750.00	1.585

(67.7727 rubles – U.S. $1)

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